Chapter 152 John Vs Leo

"I was always weaker than everyone around me, always bullied and pushed aside... Well I'm not weak anymore!" John lifted his hands and threw dozens of red lines towards Leo.

[Dash]

Leo ducked, jumped, side stepped and twisted, anything nedded to dodge the red lines. With his stats being double what they were the last time, dodging the lines was much easier now.

Leo passed through the lines without a single one even grazing his skin. A furious expression appeared on John's face as he watched Leo effortlessly dodge his attacks.

"Why must you fight the truth, Leo!" Dozens of red glass like shards appeared in the air around John. He shot all the shards towards Leo, their speed more than double that of the lines.

[Fire ball]

A ball of fire appeared in front of Leo's palm and shot out towards the shards, reaching them at the middle point between himself and John while releasing the Energy containing the Fire Ball.

The force of the explosion, coupled with the heat, destroyed the shards with ease. Until this point Leo had been holding back, hoping there would be a chance to talk some sense into John.

'I've done what I can, I told him the truth about the cult. If he refuses to listen to reason then he is choosing to side with them. He is our enemy.'

As the smoke and dust from the explosion cleared, Leo could see how utterly surprised John was. He was in complete disbelief.

"H-How did you... I thought you could only attack at close range... HOW DID YOU USE FIRE!?"

"That's not all I can do."

[Wind Blade]

[Wind Blade]

[Wind Blade]

Three Wind Blades were fired out one after another towards John, each one moving just as fast as the red shards could.

John reacted by throwing a red line of Energy towards the attack. The red Energy smashed through two of the Wind Blades before it was destroyed.

The remaining Wind Blade created a deep vertical cut across John's left shoulder. He cried out in pain as the attack tore through his flesh, exposing a bone with the depth of the cut.

A confused expression flashed across Leo's face 'There's no blood...'

John's wound should have bled enough blood to cover his entire body by now, yet there wasn't a single drop to be seen.

Leo's confusion turned into surprise when the wound started healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Within just a few seconds the wound had completely healed but the furious expression John's face was still just as visible.

Not allowing his surprise to affect him, Leo forced himself to focus on the fight again. He noticed how angry John was getting each time something didn't go his way.

"You overestimated the power of your attack and underestimated the strength of mine." Leo said, causing John's fury to intensify.

[Wind Bullet]

The Wind Blades were just as fast as the red shards that John used but Wind Bullets were even faster than that, at least twice as much.

John saw the attack heading for his head but wasn't able to do anything other than move his head to the side to avoid it, receiving a cut across his cheek as a result.

"What? No barriers today?" Leo asked in a taunting manner. "Well, I guess you are too slow to put one up after I've sent my attack at you... Maybe you should just put it up ahead of time and focus on defense." Leo continued to say with a mocking attitude.

At this point John's body was shaking from anger and his eyes seemed to be glowing ever so slightly.

" I suppose you could continue to attack from distance but I'd just dodge all of them anyways." Leo's tone turned into a condescending one "Unless you can attack with your fists, I'd say you're out of luck." Leo shrugged and even chuckled a bit.

"Just shut up..." John said in a whisper.

"Hmm? What was that? You'll have to speak up."

"I said SHUT UP!" John shouted as he charged towards Leo in a fit of rage. He opened his hands and displayed his claw like fingers as he swiped them towards Leo's chest.

[Dash]

As John's claws swung towards him, Leo made use of his superior speed to grab onto John's wrists half way through his slashes.

Johns wrists were trapped within Leo's grasp, unable to move them even slightly, he came to understand the vast difference in their physical strength.

"Your temper made this fight much easier and allowed me to win without taking a single hit."

Leo said with a mocking tone.

"We may have been friends but it wasn't for very long. I have no problem killing you if I must." Leo's tone suddenly lost all emotion and his face appeared darker and more sinister.

"Wait!" Clay shouted. He had just arrived and was now just a few meters to Leo's right.

"Please don't kill him! He doesn't understand what's really going on."

"I already tried to explain to him that he's being lied to but he refuses to listen. He made his choice, he is our enemy. I kill my enemies." Leo said, his tone cold and blunt.

"Let me try and get through to him! I've known him my whole life, he'll listen to me!" Clay pleaded.

Leo looked from John to Clay and back again, struggling to make up his mind. Finnaly, he let out a sigh "Fine."

He pulled John towards himself and delivered a powerful headbutt, knocking John unconscious.

"We can keep him locked up and you can try to get through to him but it doesn't change that he killed several Infernai. He's a criminal now and will spend his life in prison." Leo said as he let go of John, his body falling to the ground.

"Thank you... I'll take him to one of the cells maid Officer Thorn made for us." Clay said, his voice a mixture of sadness and gratitude.

Looking around at the base, Leo was concerned with how much damage he was seeing around him.

Several buildings had holes in their walls and some were heavily burned. There was one building that was still burning even now.

As he looked around the familiar notification sound chimed through his head as a message from the system popped up.

*Ding

[Quest - Defend your Headquarters] (Complete)

[Checking contributions]

[...]

[11 Human Culists killed]

[1 Imperium Killed]

[Rewards]

- 2 Skill Points

- Level Up ×2

- Battle Aura Level Up

- +10 Health

- +10 Energy

[Level up]

- 2 Stat Points

[Level Up] (20)

- 2 Skill Points

- +1 All Stats

- Fire Bolt Level up

'If the quest is complete then it means there aren't any attackers remaining. There had to be more than one Imperium among the attacking force... Did the Infernai manage to take out the rest or did they retreat?' Leo thought.

Out the corner of his eye, he noticed someone approaching on foot with incredible speed. He was momentarily alarmed by their sudden appearance but saw the Infernum uniform and allowed himself to relax as they approached.

The Infernai slowed down as she got nearer and stopped just in front of Leo while breathing heavily.

"General ~Huff~ the city is ~Huff~ under attack. They need help." She managed to say as quick as she could between her desperate attempts to catch her breath.

"So they did attack the city at the same time. I don't think anyone here is capable of providing much in the way of back up after all the fighting they just did." Leo was deep in thought, thinking about what the best course of action to take was.

He noticed the Infernai was still standing in front of him, waiting for an order." You can go rest now, thank you."

She was very relieved to hear those words and walked away slowly towards the barracks to go rest.

Leo turned around and saw that Clay had just picked up John's unconscious body and was starting to walk towards their holding cells.

He walked along side Clay and told him about the city being under attack "We can't send more of our troops to the city without risking another attack on the headquarters." Leo added after his explanation.

"Nila and I will need to remain here as well. We have to sort out all the mess this attack has caused and we need to be here to help if another attack does happen." Clay replied with a concerned tone. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll have to help them by myself. I should be enough to at least lower the number of monsters and give the others a chance to regain their footing." With that said, Leo took off running towards Drom and full speed.

[Energy 165/340]

' It should be enough to help. I'll have to use Absorb when I get the chanve, right now I need to focus on getting there.'

*Ding

[Quest - Defend Drom and save your allies]

[Reward]

[?]